'Sit/lie' law needed to stop bullies on Haight

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, December 17, 2009

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'Sit/lie' law needed to stop bullies on Haight

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There's big trouble on Haight Street.

"It's High Noon out here," said Arthur Evans, who has lived at the corner of Haight and Ashbury for 35 years. "We don't want to live in the Wild West. We need a sheriff to come in and straighten it out."

Actually the sheriff is already in place, San Francisco police Capt. Teresa Barrett. She's getting good reviews from neighbors, merchants, and residents while her officers are on patrol, issuing citations and confronting belligerent street people.

But it's not working.

The problem is that in the last year or so, the Haight has gone through an unpleasant transformation. Instead of the usual drowsy drunks and affable stoners, a new group has taken over the sidewalks. They're young, aggressive bullies who confront residents, sit on the sidewalks with pit bulls, and even prey on small-time marijuana dealers.

Barrett hopes a public outcry will mobilize the courts, the neighborhood and City Hall. She's wants the city to look at a "sit/lie" law, which would prohibit lounging on the sidewalk for hours at a time. That's an idea that has been proposed and debated before, but this is such an egregious situation that she's hoping the idea will gain political momentum.

She's also encouraging merchants to invest in storefront video cameras on their own, something that has worked well in the Tenderloin.

"Anything caught on tape is almost an automatic charge by the district attorney's office," Barrett said.

This new group is both intimidating and savvy. They know average citizens don't want a confrontation, so they cluster in groups and dare residents to complain. When police arrive, they invoke their rights, aware that there's no law against congregating on the sidewalk.

"They are not the homeless because I am sure these guys have a place to go," Barrett said. "These are people committing criminal offenses."

Barrett says this isn't a turf war between the police and the punks, but that's how it looks.

Two weeks ago, a Haight Street resident got into a confrontation in front of his house which degenerated into a nasty fistfight on the sidewalk. When people rushed to help, one of them says she was warned, "Call the police, and I'll kill you."

The resident ended up suffering severe bite wounds and a gouged eye. The street punk was arrested, but no charges were filed.

But it didn't stop there. The dog owner brought his friends back, sat on the steps of the house, called out the name of the man who lived there and threatened people who went into the house. The resident is moving.

But nothing will happen if citations are dismissed, merchants don't step up with video cameras and support, and the city doesn't give officers like Barrett the tools to stop this bullying.

"If you keep thinking you can do something, and there are no consequences, you'll keep doing it," Barrett said.

A "sit/lie" law has been a tough sell in liberal San Francisco, but other communities - including Berkeley, which has a provision on troubled Telegraph Avenue that "no person shall lie on a commercial sidewalk" - have decided they've had enough.

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